possibly sick demasoni cichlid

magakitty

magakitty

Normal people scare me
Apr 5, 2007
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Palm Springs
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We bought a demasoni cichlid at the LFS Saturday and he was very active until today. We found him "standing" against the side of the tank. He could be chased out of the position, but he kept moving back. You can see one patch of fuzz on the top edge of the second blue stripe (counting the head stripe) down.

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We checked him out with a magnifying glass and he looks a little raggedy, and seemed to have some fungus looking threads on his side. When we put him in the QT we realized that he has brown on his sides, even on the blue stripes. It is about the color of the diatoms that inhabit the tank. He kinda looks fuzzy and his fins look somewhat ragged. Here are the best pics I could get of the brown on him.

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Water parameters are
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
nitrate 40
PH 7.8
temp 80 F

he is the only recent addition. We are particularly concerned about him AND the other fish, two of whom are holding.

Can anyone give us any idea of what this might be and how to treat it?
 
40 ppm is a little high I would suggest trying to find out how many water changes you need to keep it around or below 20ppm and I would return him quick for the safety of your holding fish. No clue what the brown stuff could be sorry.
 
I would definitely be on to water changes. I don't care for nitrates above 20.

It could be stress from the recent move and territorial issues, until the prcking order gets straightened out.
 
^ I think so too...water changes never a bad idea and I would shoot for 20 on nitrates.

Just on the first pic, looks to me like he's using the plant as cover, leading to the head up position. I have had a couple of fish do exactly this on introduction to the tank (seek vertical cover between a plant and the side of the tank) and put it down to the stress of the move/getting use to the tank and inhabitants. It stopped after a few days.
 
he's in the qt right now. He's eating, but looks rough. We think he might have gotten into a fight with a bigger fish. I am going to the LFS today for some meds for him, and we are keeping a close eye on the other fish. I added salt to the QT last night and he doesn't look like he has quite as much brown on him this morning. Will keep you posted.
 
The brown is probably from rubbing against the plants that have the diatom(sp)/algae on it.

What are the other fish in the tank?
 
Well - just an update - he seems to be a little better. He is eating better. We still have him in the QT and are doing frequent water changes, using water out of the tank we took him from. we are also treating him with pimafix and melafix. I took pictures to our favorite LFS and they were pretty sure he looked beat up, and gave us advice about reintroducing him to the tank using a fry net, after he is back to 100% health. They said leave him in the fry net until the other fish are no longer even curious about him, then feed the other end of the tank and net him and release him at the very bottom of the tank, far away from the other fish. possibly even releasing him at night when we turn the lights out and everyone settles in for the night.
 
that's exactly what I did what a guy who got badly beat up on being introduced (the fry net for a couple of weeks to allow him recover) and it worked like a charm.

mind you if the demasoni lives up to his species he will have plenty of the required 'personality' to look after himself very shortly !
 
Update on Jethro (we were listening to Jethro Tull on the way home from the LFS - that's how most of our fish get their names) It appears that he has damage to one of his eyes. The colors are reversed - gold where the pupil should be and black around it, and he swims holding his head so that his good eye is mostly forward. He also ran into the side of the tank with the "bad" side. He has a wound, or scale damage, whatever you want to call it, on that side, about the middle of his body. He is eating well and is active, but we are going to leave him in QT for a couple of more days before we put him in the fry net so we can continue to treat him without having to treat the whole 55. This means twice daily PWC's, because the QT isn't cycled, but we are able to keep the levels really low that way. Ammonia is almost non-existant (highest reading, before PCW is <.25) and nitrite is about the same. We have a sponge filter in the QT, and we seeded it with substrate from the 55, so that is probably helping.

Can we float the sponge in one of the tanks when we are not using it to keep the biofiltration going?
 
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